Hague said: "Certainly weapons, Tuareg people coming out of Libya, have contributed to this situation that then al-Qaida in the Maghreb have been able to take advantage of.".

"We were involved, if you recall, in saving lives in Libya. I think, actually, if we had not been doing that, because what we did actually shortened the Libyan conflict, these problems would have been, if anything, even greater.

"If the Libyan conflict had gone on for longer, there would have been an even greater flow of weapons and an even greater opportunity for extremists to take hold in Libya."

He added: "While the Libyan situation may well have contributed to what has happened in Mali, I think the action that the western world took in Libya, if anything, mitigated that."

Hague pointed to Somalia as a model for western policymakers, stressing the progress the country had made towards stability in the past year. He referred to the London conference designed to bring about a legitimate government with strong African forces engaged in fighting terrorism. He said these forces funded by the west had also received strong diplomatic and humanitarian support from the rest of the world including the UN.

"What we do not want in these countries like Mali is that 20 years of failed state that preceded all of that in Somalia," he added. He said a critical part of the Somalian story had been to ensure the development of a legitimate permanent government rather than a transitional government imposed from the outside. He said there had to be a similar readiness to negotiate inside Mali between north and south.

He praised the efforts from the UN security council down to promote a successful solution in Mali.

He added the mobilisation of western African forces took time since it could be a terrible military blunder to send forces without the necessary training and logistics into such an inhospitable region.

Hague also played down the UK role in west Africa, saying: "We have a limited diplomatic military presence in francophone western Africa states. It is a complete illusion to think we are omnipotent in all these respects."